Josef Altstötter (4 January 1892Verdict, Judge's trial, pages 1170 to 1177.

Bad Griesbach (Rottal) Bad Griesbach im Rottal ( bar, label=Central Bavarian, Bad Griasboch im Rottoi), or just Bad Griesbach, is a town in the district of Passau in Bavaria in Germany. History "Burg Griesbach" is first mentioned in a document from around 1076. The ...

Lower Bavaria Lower Bavaria (german: Niederbayern, Bavarian: ''Niedabayern'') is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state. Geography Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions () – Landshut and Donau-W ...

– 13 November 1979,

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

) was a high-ranking official in the German

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

under the Nazi Regime. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he was tried by the

Nuremberg Military Tribunal The subsequent Nuremberg trials were a series of 12 military tribunals for war crimes against members of the leadership of Nazi Germany between December 1946 and April 1949. They followed the first and best-known Nuremberg trial before the In ...

as a defendant in the

Judges' Trial The Judges' Trial (; or, the Justice Trial, or, officially, ''The United States of America vs. Josef Altstötter, et al.'') was the third of the 12 trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nurem ...

, where he was acquitted of the most serious charges, but was found guilty of a lesser charge of membership in a criminal organization (the SS).

Professional career

After serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Altstötter completed his law studies in Munich in 1920, passed the state jurisprudence examination and began work in 1921 as deputy judge in the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

n Justice Department. In 1927 he worked in the Reich Ministry of Justice. In 1933, he moved to the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

for

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and finally in 1936 into Reich Labour Court. From 1939 to 1942 he was with the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...

. From January 1943 he was back in the Reich Ministry of Justice (Division VI:''Civil Law and Justice''), where he was appointed in May 1943 chief of the civil law and procedure division ("Reichministerialdirektor"), and remained there throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was awarded the

Golden Party Badge __NOTOC__ The Golden Party Badge (german: Goldenes Parteiabzeichen) was an award authorised by Adolf Hitler in a decree in October 1933. It was a special award given to all Nazi Party members who had, as of 9 November 1933, registered numbers fr ...

for service to the Nazi party. Part of Altstötter's department included the Nuremberg racial laws enacted to isolate Jews from German life and deprive them of civil rights. His office also had responsibility for revising the German inheritance and family law. These revisions were to ensure that after death, the property of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

would not go to their children, but instead would be forfeited to the German government.

Membership in Nazi organizations

Prior to its takeover by the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

Altstötter was a member of ''

Der Stahlhelm ' (German, 'The Steel Helmet, League of Front-Line Soldiers'), commonly known as ''Der Stahlhelm'' ('The Steel Helmet'), was a German First World War veteran's organisation existing from 1918 to 1935. It was part of the " Black Reichswehr" an ...

'', a right-wing veterans organisation. After this was restructured as a Nazi organization, Altstötter became a member of the SA (SA-number: Member 31). On 15 May 1937 Altstötter moved from the SA to the SS (membership number 289,254) in 1944 had reached the rank of '' SS-Oberführer'' (senior colonel). In September 1938 he also joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

(membership number 5,823,836). Josef Altstötter was friendly with high-level SS leaders with, among others,

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (4 October 190316 October 1946) was a high-ranking Austrian SS official during the Nazi era and a major perpetrator of the Holocaust. After the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and a brief period under Heinric ...

and

Gottlob Berger Gottlob Christian Berger (16 July 1896 – 5 January 1975) was a senior German Nazi official who held the rank of '' SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS'' (lieutenant general) and was the chief of the SS Main Office responsible ...

After the war

In 1947, Josef Altstötter was one of the accused in the

. The indictment accused him, and other Nazi judges and legal officials of the participation in war crime and crimes against humanity. For Altstötter, the particular allegations against him were that he was criminally involved with both the Nazi racial laws and also with kidnapping and secret murder of people pursuant to the Nazi " Night and Fog Decree". However, there was only sufficient evidence to convict him of membership in the SS. According to the Tribunal, Altstötter In December 1947, he was sentenced to five years in prison. Altstötter served his sentence at

Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison is a penal facility in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about west-southwest of Munich and south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, a ...

and was released on 21 December 1949 (several months early due to good behavior).Robert D. King Papers
Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries. From 1950 to 1966, he worked as a lawyer. In 1979, at the age of 87 years he died in Nuremberg.

Awards

German Cross The War Order of the German Cross (german: Der Kriegsorden Deutsches Kreuz), normally abbreviated to the German Cross or ''Deutsches Kreuz'', was instituted by Adolf Hitler on 28 September 1941. It was awarded in two divisions: in gold for repe ...

in Gold on 25 March 1942 as '' Major d.B.'' in the II./Infanterie-Regiment 475Patzwall & Scherzer 2001, p. 14.

Notes

References

Ernst Klee Ernst Klee (15 March 1942, Frankfurt – 18 May 2013, Frankfurt) was a German journalist and author. As a writer on Germany's history, he was best known for his exposure and documentation of medical crimes in Nazi Germany, much of which was concer ...

: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945.'' Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, . * *

Hermann Weiß Hermann Herbert Maria "Harry" Weiss (b. March 17, 1909 - d. May 16, 1979) was an Austrian ice hockey player. He played as a goaltender for the club Wiener EV and the Austria men's national ice hockey team. He competed at multiple Winter Olympic G ...

(Hrsg.): ''Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich'', Fischer-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1998,

External links

Judge's trial proceedings
from the Mazal Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Altstoetter, Josef 1892 births 1979 deaths People from Bad Griesbach (Rottal) People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Nazi Party politicians Stahlhelm members Sturmabteilung personnel SS-Oberführer People convicted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class Recipients of the Gold German Cross Judges in the Nazi Party